Daggers & Skulls

After Teach survives the first go around the ship, Rodgers says "again" quietly, with self assurance. He's disappointed that teach survived one go, but is clearly not surprised, sending a man under the ship a second time is clearly not uncharted territory for him.

And as he orders this he glances around the ship and is caught and pauses when he sees Jack's look.

This look:

And what catches him completely off guard is that there is no fear here. Jack has clearly figured out what the plan is, he almost certainly knows he is next, as he keeps almost this exact look when he is taken after Teach is assumed dead.

What this look is , is disgust. Jack Rackham, Pirate Captain and enemy to all mankind, is looking down on Woodes Rodger, because this show of force is so grotesque. Rackham meets Rodger's eyes, doesn't break away, and this is what rattles him.

I had to post this scene like this because I'm obsessed with Toby Stephens and Louise Barnes here, they did a fantastic job in a very important moment because, without yet revealing to us exactly what happened, we see for the first time the true motivation behind Flint's actions so far.

Similar to Eleanor, Miranda is a woman who has lived in the privilege that money has provided her and I love her dearly but Flint is right here. He doesn't come from a wealthy family and has spent his life ignoring his origins and his desires to fit into society. He has been good at his job, has done everything asked of him and has kept any indiscretions hidden.

And it has not been enough.

Miranda has the opportunity to be happy in that society but Flint does not because it would mean denying who he is again and ignoring what was done to the person he has loved most in his life, a person who was the same as him.

Flint was fighting the war because he knows society will never accept their love the way it was currently.

Silver ended it because he couldnt fathom the idea of losing him to it.

They loved each other so deeply they were willing to end the relationship to make sure the other person was okay, even if it meant they knew they wouldnt

if we are going with what is shown and Flint is on the plantation, it was the most selfless thing we've seen Silver do hidden under something that seems selfish.

NATIONAL HOLIDAY

Jack Rackham for @xoxoctic , thank you ❤️

things i am normal about:

not these three

ID (copied from alt): The first image is a drawing of Thomas Hamilton, James McGraw, and Miranda Hamilton in which Thomas (left) kisses James (middle) while Miranda rests her face on James' shoulder as she is stabbed by a silver sword. Miranda grips the sword where it enters her chest while James holds it by the base of the blade, both of their hands bleeding. Miranda's other hand, which has her wedding ring, reaches for Thomas' hand, which rests on James' chest and has a signet ring on his pinky. Thomas' other hand cups James' face. James is the only one with his eyes open, looking conflicted. He is wearing a blue naval uniform and is clean-shaven with a long ponytail. Thomas is clean shaven and wearing a fine green coat. Miranda's hair is in voluminous ringlets and she is wearing a yellow gossamer dress. She is wearing simple makeup and fine earrings and matching necklace. The background is light grey.

The second image is a matching drawing of the same trio ten years later; Thomas Hamilton, James Flint, and Miranda Barlow. In addition to the blood from the sword wounds, Miranda has entry and exit wounds on her head, making blood run down and cover the right side of her neck and shoulder. Flint has a similar looking wound on his head that makes blood run down past his ear into his collar, and a bloody nose. Flint has a shaved head and a goatee beard, and has a gold stud earring. He is wearing a black leather coat and dark shirt, and two silver rings on his ring and pinkie fingers. Miranda is wearing a subtly floral patterned grey dress, and her grey-streaked hair is straight and tied in a bun except for two curls at her cheekbones. She has no makeup on and wears simple earrings. Thomas has greying hair and a scruffy full beard. His cheekbones are further sunken and he has some sunburn on his face and the back of his neck. He is wearing a loose, dirty grey shirt and no rings. The sword is gold. The background is dark grey, and more of the trio is in shadow.

the image it's based on under the cut for anyone unfamiliar

Now seeing the whole painting I can see the man is not looking behind but to the ship they are going towards (in the detail it wasn't so clear since there is also some land visible in the background), but still there's something in the facial expression of the two which definitely make me think about them. Something in the way the man looks haunted and the woman looks emptied, and they still are so close to one another...

It's so beautiful. Just like Flint and Miranda's relationship is to me.

"TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER

If sailor tales to sailor tunes, Storm and adventure, heat and cold, If schooners, islands, and maroons, And buccaneers, and buried gold, And all the old romance, retold Exactly in the ancient way, Can please, as me they pleased of old, The wiser youngsters of today:

—So be it, and fall on! If not, If studious youth no longer crave, His ancient appetites forgot, Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave, Or Cooper of the wood and wave: So be it, also! And may I And all my pirates share the grave Where these and their creations lie!"

flint's poem reads:

i can only tell you in the strange language of pain, the pull of the sea made me a monster. until i find harbor, let my confession rest in fractures among the forest where you have buried me, but we are way past wanting, and you have braided mythologies, carved me away, until this final hot branding of shame.

silver's poem reads:

the truth of violence so hungry in me it cast the years adrift— a new name to bury my past, frightening against your fire. of your stories, i wanted— nothing. nothing with the tensile strength of a tragedy kills me.

the combined poem reads:

i can only tell you the truth in the strange language of violence of pain, the pull of the sea so hungry in me it made me a monster. cast the years adrift— until i find a new name to harbor, let my confession bury my past, rest in fractures frightening against your fire. among the forest of your stories, where you have buried me, i wanted— but we are way past wanting, and nothing. nothing you have braided with the tensile strength of mythologies, carved me away, until a tragedy this final hot branding of shame. kills me.

If I’m not what I was when I was born, and I ain’t what I’ve become instead…

Anne Bonny, Charles Vane, and gender. That’s it, that’s the post.

And what’s perhaps the most interesting is he very well could have altered the tale. He says aloud something Silver and Flint have seemingly always known: it doesn’t matter whether the story is true when it’s told, it only matters if people believe it. It would have been easy to insert himself into a grander role in that story. To paint himself as a key player in the final events that went down on the island. In the fate of the Urca gold. (And given that he was technically the one who recovered it, it wouldn’t be unwarranted.) But he doesn’t.